profiles in banal unnecessary cowardice

Tom Vilsack Fires Shirley Sherrod As the Summer of Firings Over Nothing Continues

Yesteday, we linked to a dumb attempt by human poop-leech Andrew Breitbart to paint the NAACP as racist hypocrites. Wow, that certainly was silly! Everyone can see how silly that was! Oh no? Not everyone? Right, our modern political discourse requires us to treat baseless incendiary attacks by scumbags as serious while treating the actual things that matter as unimportant. SORRY, WE FORGOT. You know who treats the drivel Andrew Breitbart says seriously? Not nobody. Just the NAACP and USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and also the Obama administration, the most powerful thing in the country. OH, THEM.

We called Breitbart’s video of the USDA’s Georgia Director Of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod “BORING” and told you not to watch it. Well, we were wrong. Apparently it is important just because Andrew Breitbart says it is. So let us tell you more about it.

In the video, you see, Shirley Sherrod made the admirable admission that she felt she acted a little prejudiced one time. Not crazily racist or anything, just that she felt she didn’t help a man as much as she could have at the moment. It was completely understandable, but she used it to make a small insight into race and poverty in America about something that happened decades ago in a speech at a relatively very unimportant banquet.

No, this farmer thing was not new; it happened decades ago. No, Shirley Sherrod was not working for the government at the time when she did it. No, she is not really a major public figure or in any way the face of the NAACP or racism or cool tractors that go vroom-vroom on farms in Georgia.

Oh, and the family of the man against whom Sherrod was apparently prejudiced? They feel she did do everything she could have done to help him. Here’s Pareene:

Sherrod belonged to an organization set up during the civil rights era specifically to help black farmers. So, yes, she had some reservations the first time she was approached for help by a white farmer. Then she sent him to a white lawyer for help, because she thought the white lawyer would help one of his own kind. But she learned an important lesson that day: When you’re poor, no one wants to help you, no matter your race!

Because the entire point of Sherrod’s story was to illustrate how her eyes were opened to that fact, she went on in her speech to explain that she “eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm and … eventually became friends with him and his wife.”

None of this matters, though, when you are a hate goblin named Andrew Breitbart. Some hippies were mean or something to Breitbart one time, and thus Breitbart turned into this odd, probably belief-less creature who only exists to mess with libtards. So recently Breitbart was searching through piles of random NAACP-related stuff to try to find something to call racist. And so he slotted this video into that conception. And so now we are here somehow.

And so your afternoon editor hereby announces the Jack Stuef $100,000 Challenge! Any evidence that Andrew Breitbart is a human being with an actual set of beliefs and/or ethics will net you a cool hundred thousand! Like any Breitbart $100,000 challenge, this is probably completely unprovable. But if you can, good! Your hundredaire afternoon editor will pay you $100,000 and immediately go bankrupt, which is actually a cool and popular thing to do in America now. People are now tattooing their bankruptcy paperwork on their chests and taping them to the back window of their Hummers to show it off!

The NAACP apparently released their reaction last night. They certainly stood by her, right, as this was just a dumb ploy by Breitbart to rile them up and somehow make them look bad for having Sherrod speak to some sort of NAACP banquet about something that happened decades ago? Haha! No, nice try. They decided to immediately throw her under the bus. She was an expendable human being to them even though she did nothing wrong, and they did this all in the name of some bastardized view of good public relations:

We concur with US Agriculture Secretary Vilsack in accepting the resignation of Shirley Sherrod for her remarks at a local NAACP Freedom Fund banquet.

Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race.

We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers.

Seriously? Fuck off. Fuck off. And try to remember for a second that you are called the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and not the National Association for Demonizing Random Black People Andrew Breitbart Baselessly Tells You to Demonize. Jesus Christ.

Later on, realizing what they had done to this poor, exemplary woman, the NAACP backtracked and released another statement, blaming their initial reaction on context. Yeah, no. You don’t get away with doing that. There was no reason in Breitbart’s original context for them to throw her under the bus. Maybe you have the responsibility to think first about what you are doing when you call people racists, NAACP. Certainly you have that responsibility if you want people to take you seriously the next time you call someone racist.

But the most depressing thing about all of this is that Tom Vilsack fired Shirley Sherrod. He fired her. Because of some dumb thing Breitbart vomited on his keyboard! He fired her!

You may remember Tom Vilsack-of-shit as the greatest failure of the 2008 presidential election. This castrato quickly realized that nobody liked him and almost immediately dropped out. But oh no, Tom had campaign debts! So Tom went around asking all the other candidates to pay off his debts in exchange for his endorsement. Hillary Clinton bit. And so, after groveling and kissing her feet, Tom Vilsack spent a year going around telling people how much he loved Hillary. God, he loved her so much! He baked pies for her! Yet somehow that stench of sack (Vil) success never brushed off on Hillary.

So it should be no surprise this man has no balls. He is a disgrace to the state of Iowa, where brave people legalized gay marriage because it was the right thing to do. And it is time for him to return to obscurity in his hometown of Mount Pleasant and enjoy his neighbors ignoring him. Here was his statement:

Yesterday, I asked for and accepted Ms. Sherrod’s resignation for two reasons. First, for the past 18 months, we have been working to turn the page on the sordid civil rights record at USDA and this controversy could make it more difficult to move forward on correcting injustices. Second, state rural development directors make many decisions and are often called to use their discretion. The controversy surrounding her comments would create situations where her decisions, rightly or wrongly, would be called into question making it difficult for her to bring jobs to Georgia.

Our policy is clear. There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA and we strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person. We have a duty to ensure that when we provide services to the American people we do so in an equitable manner. But equally important is our duty to instill confidence in the American people that we are fair service providers.

First, if any Georgia farmers actually listen to Breitbart, they are the kind of people who would never respect Sherrod anyway and do not need this bogus “perception” Breitbart says is a “perception.” Second, if there is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, you need to resign, shit-head, as you have discriminated against Shirley Sherrod for having character and being forthright and for being the unfair target of a shit-leech, something she did not choose.

The prize for most disappointing and spineless has to go to the Obama administration, however. Not only did they try to distance themselves from the Vilsack’s decision, they made sure Breitbart and the reactionaries who listen to him know they agree with this firing at the same time. They are spineless two ways!

Perhaps it is too much to expect that the senior Hopey leadership would disagree with Vilsack. Because after pulling off an “outsider” victory for the Democratic nomination, the Obama team made sure to make good with the Democratic establishment, in decisions they didn’t have to make such as appointing Tom Vilsack to his job, and to resume fighting political battles on the old (blowjob) turf. Maybe nothing more strikingly shows this than the occasions in which they have failed to show a spine, such as this one.

But, finally, it should not be too much to expect that the young people who gave Obama’s campaign its life and make up the bulk of his current team stand up against the old Baby Boomer identity politics bullshit. They do not have to choose to deal in this bullshit. Yet there are no resignations to report, now or ever. Nobody will take the fall. They are all too pragmatic to stand up for what is right and lose their job. Some twenty-something had to draft Vilsack’s dumb statement. Another had to deliver it to the press. Even more were dealing with this in the White House. And yet: silence. With nobody to stand up for “Change,” whatever that meant, power defaults to the old guard who last used it. And thus Andrew Breitbart is in charge of our politics because he knows how to push these old buttons. Not Obama. Not the Democratic Party. Not the young people who should care about their country going to shit while they let these old buttons be pushed for political sideshows.

Poopheads all around.

We are Team Shirley, as everyone who is not in power seems to be at this hour. And we are on this team with Erick Erickson, for fuck’s sake. There is only one solution to this problem: Obama needs to fire Vilsack and replace him with Shirley Sherrod, as she actually cares deeply about her fellow human beings and her work and is able to use her brain.

How could the powers that be be so wrong? Oh, yeah, they usually are. And they seem to be actually scared of this dumb bullshit we make fun of here. Depressing. Can we please be governed by the animals of the forest from now on? They could probably steer clear of this bullshit.

Also, can Andrew Breitbart please release a list of everyone in the country he would like to call racist? The NAACP will then also call these people racists, and then the Obama administration will see to it that they are fired. That will be much more expedient, and it’s better to do it now while unemployment is high. That way it’s not so distracting, and the people who are wrongly fired will have more company. They can hang out with all the other people who are being fired right now for no good reason! (Saying or writing something that could possibly be objected to is not a good reason for firing someone. This fact apparently has to be said. Over and over.) [YouTube/Salon/Politico/CNN/TPM/NAACP/Weigel]

First off Stuef what are you doing working this late? Second, there are a lot of words to read here. Third, why am I in Fargo?

iburl

I concur.
Almost every failure of the Obama administration has a root in the fact that the Obama White House lives in constant fear of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, and their screechy, brain-dead, pistol-packin’ teabagging scum.
NEWS FLASH: They already hate you, and they will always hate you. There is NOTHING you can ever do to please them. Watering down the Public option to a insurance company bailout plan didn’t do it. Tripling the troops in Afghanistan didn’t do it. Leaving our offshore war crime torture palaces in perfect bushian working condition didn’t do it. Calling for the assisination of American Ciitizens who are too radical in their anti-american speech didn’t do it. Firing Van Jones didn’t do it. Firing Elizabeth Warren won’t do it….
SO STOP TRYING.
Make some wins for the people who put you in office and TO HELL WITH THE RIGHT WING BASTARDS TO WHOM YOU ARE CONSTANTLY TRADING AWAY YOUR BASE’S HOPES.
Senator Greene for president 2012.

knoxtheharpy

Between this and Benincasa’s MoDo recap, I realize that I must have missed the announcement that this is Sincerity Week at teh Wonkett.

It’s all true, though.

imissopus

Good on ya, Steuf. I was seriously depressed reading some of the coverage on this story earlier and reminding myself why I generally avoid following current events these days. I didn’t think it was possible to hate Breitbart anymore than I already do.

But I must say, Erick son of Erick may be on our side on this one, but that didn’t stop him from spending the first couple of grafs of his post praising Breitbart in general and again claiming that black congressmen were not spit on and called “niggers” during the healthcare debate. It’s that tired meme of no one caught it on tape, ergo it never happened. Which, ironically, is something Breitbart pushed like crazy. It’s incredibly shabby of him to rise to this woman’s defense after taking a gratuitous shot harking back to the healthcare debate in order to reassure all of his readers that normally he thinks black people are full of shit.

What I’m saying is that Erick son of Erick should never be referred to as anything other than a gigantic pussy discharge from the chlamydia-infected cock of the Republican Party.

Horselover Fat

Whoa, Stuef! In the parlance of these here Internets: U MAD?

Seriously, though — and at the risk of reeking of the Wonketterati’s own garlic, sincerity — I hope Tom Shitheel Vilsackless is punched straight in his saggy, useless scrotum so hard that his watery and infertile seed becomes an internal geyser that dislodges his feeble brain. If there is any justice in these newfangled typing tubes, he will become a Santorum-esque joke, and every time we talk about a politician drubbed in shame from the corridors of power, we will all say, man and woman and son of Erick alike: “Dude, you just got VILSACK’D.”

sati demise

[re=621958]iburl[/re]: from your keyboard to Obamas big ears, I hope.

When is the Obama administration going to get this point?
If someone thinks you are a islamo-marxist-commie-stalinist-muslin-half black-kenyan who is out to destroy real America it really doesnt matter what you do.
Obama could save their only child with emergency resuscitation, and they will still think it is a plot to ruin America

sati demise

Vilesack needs to apologize and give Ms. Sherrod her job back, with a freakin raise for putting up with his vileness.

Big Liver

[re=621961]Horselover Fat[/re]: “Vilsack’d”! Ha! I second the motion.

Nappied Hypotenuse

[re=621959]knoxtheharpy[/re]: I knew it would be sincerity week because I was headed to Canada.

usernameguy

Every fucking thing you said.

lulzmonger

Amusing Anecdote: I recently read that Sharrod had helped farmers to win a BIG class-action settlement against the USDA, many years before she joined them … hmm, you don’t think maybe someone on their Executive Board yanked Vilsack’s chain to cut her loose when a golden opportunity came along, do you?

Sorry Jack, no matter how much I may agree (answer: a lot) with your other comments I think your dig at the NAACP is ill-founded. Their error in this farce stems not from mendacity but from application of principle (racists are bad no matter what their albedo, mmmkay?) in response to false information selectively publicized by shitheads.

They backed off almost, dropping the release from their website once they found out there were questions, got the whole tape and reviewed it, and declared they’d been “snookered” and would be more careful next time, all within 18 hours. You can call this confused behavior, hapless even, but I think their response to their mistake has been admirable and quick.

Vilsack, on the other hand, based on his reasoning concerning controversy in the ranks of the USDA, will need to resign, since he will be unable to do his job adequately due to having become the Butz of jokes.

(For the record my albedo is 0.8, maybe 0.6 if I’ve been out of doors a whole lot.)

Stuef you fucking KILLED IT ON THIS SHIT. I was just reading CNN and crying like a little girl whose brother has just pooped on her imaginary tea cups in her imaginary castle. I also was trimming a wig Michele Bachmann is wearing in her epic video shoot tonight. And eating Ramen. This shit is AWESOME. I got to “Fuck you” and wanted to cheer like a secretly homosexual male cheerleader.

Oh hell to the no

[re=621971]qaf[/re]: Nope. I agree with Stuef. Fuck the NAACP in this case. Fuck them, fuck Breitbart, fuck Vilsack. Fuck them all in a fuck chain of fuckery. I’m black, also.

usernameguy

Here’s the fucking hilarious part of this story. It’s so fucking hilarious, you guys!

One part of the right wing is saying that she thought about not helping the white guy, so obviously she’s racist and should have been fired, yo.

The other part (the Fox News, i.e., The Pros) are successfully blaming Obama for railroading this lady who says racism can also happen to white people, completely ignoring that not twelve hours earlier they were condemning the same woman as a racist. And they are getting away with it. Because of stupidity.

So congratulations, you hacks in the White House, you’ve alienated your base, and you’ve given literally every single enemy of a sane America a talking point to bash you, no matter where they come from!

qaf

[re=621971]qaf[/re]: They backed off almost immediately, sorry for the garble.

DoktorZoom

Rachel Maddow, as usual, had a stunningly smart discussion of the whole sordid mess.

OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin

We read it here first at our Wonkette. Tomorrowday’s news cycle is going to be fun fun fun, watching the bigots either eat their words or try hard to make their old words still stick.

Extemporanus

Surely, you can’t be serious.

Katydid

I’d like to point out that our very own teh_mantis picked up on how the video was doctored immediately yesterday.

And secondly, the esteemed Julian Bond pointed out on Maddow last night that Sherrod’s father had been murdered by the Klan when she was 17.

And you nailed it, Jack. U R hammr.

Rotundo

You just had to use the qualifier “ethics” didn’t you. Just like the “void in every state of the union and all U.S. possessions”, that word, as it relates to frightfart pretty much renders the challenge unwinnable. The closest decency ever came to him was when he bumped into a cleaning lady and cursed her out for being in the way, otherwise, he seems to have a humanity barrier of 1 to 100 feet radius around him.

Serolf Divad

And the only hero in this story is Andrew Breitbart, who has managed to show us that there isn’t a single person in America who holds a position of responsibility who is any less contemptible than he himself is (now that Sherrod is no longer in a position of responsibility).

In Hell these people will forever find themselves drowning in huge vats of warm manure, gathered from the many farms that Sherrod helped rescue from foreclosure.

BarackMyWorld

I DISAGREE WITH THIS PERSON’S POLITICS, SO EVERYTHING BAD I HEAR ABOUT THEM MUST BE TRUE!!!!!

[re=621984]Katydid[/re]: Not only that, but the first ten minutes of her speech, to build context- the ugly, vicious, terrible racism she grew witnessing in the rural south, including the lynching of her father.

Oh, yeah, the NAACP has [url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9NcCa_KjXk”]now put up the speech[/url], in its entirety.

mumblyjoe

[re=621996]mumblyjoe[/re]: sigh. I need to stop posting in forums. I forget how HTML works.

Rajul

Hope fail.

FlipOffResearch

Brilliant stuff Stuef! Breitbart blows.

fictional character

remember when people would actually stop and think and investigate before freely calling someone other than mel gibson racist? neither do i.

Aflac Shrugged

It’s more understandable when put in the context of generations of whites suffering at the hands of black people. Or would be, if it hadn’t happened in exactly the opposite way.

Pandy

[re=621975]usernameguy[/re]: This is neither funny nor new. It is more of the same old, same old. For those Wonkette readers who are too young to remember, one of the strategies of the racist element has been to make minorities (of any kind) turn against each other. The logic in this is that they are too busy fighting each other to fight the true enemy of racism.

If you doubt this, look at what they did during the 2008 election. The point of focusing on the president’s half black, half white background was not to emphasize that he has white ancestry. No, it was to emphasize that he was not fully black. Why? Because they were trying to send an indirect message to black people that he was not “one of them”. Suddenly, the concept of the mulatto was important but not because they want to celebrate his racial diversity. No, they wanted to dig up old wounds in the black community and create a division.

This is they way they do things. So, as much as I agree with Mr. Stuef about the serious FAIL by the administration and the NAACP, I suggest we hold off on dumping on the Kenyan since that would be falling for the trap. Instead of saying things like “Maybe you have the responsibility to think first about what you are doing when you call people racists, NAACP. Certainly you have that responsibility if you want people to take you seriously the next time you call someone racist.”, we should say “here we go again…”

If anyone thinks that people like Brietbart were not shocked when the Hope and Change crowd won in November, trust me they were. We, meaning Americans of all shades, were not supposed to act together and look beyond superficial differences.

Anyway, I think Team Shirley should ask for a beer summit of its own with Mrs. O just for the teachable moments.

Geogre

Amen, Jack. A full on Jeremiad is on target, on time, and necessary.

facehead

I have a secret video of Breitbart saying “oh fiddlesticks” as he crushes a cellophane bag filled with kittens and love poems.

Can I maybe get $2?

Asa Hawks

Dead fucking on. Breitbart is a bag of cancer.

Katydid

[re=621996]mumblyjoe[/re]: Sorry, I meant to say that for context, thanks. Also, because this is Wonkette, let me emphasize that I meant “the esteemed Julian Bond” sincerely.

And just to show how the msm is still mistreating this, CNN has a John King interview with Breitbart, and the cutline for the clip says, “Andrew Breitbart discusses his controversial decision to post a video that has sparked a national debate about racism.” Goddammit, that’s not the problem, that’s not what happened. It’s that, as usual, he sliced up some video and lied about the context.

Oh, and in another slime move by Andrew, he posted what is supposedly Sherrod’s entire speech at bigbullshit.com, with the words, “The full video of Shirley Sherrod’s speech before the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner in Georgia is now available. This is Part 1.”

NOW available? Douchesack told John King he had the video in March. Goddamm him to hell.

Oldskool

God you guys do more thinking by 8am than I do all day.

facehead

LOL, apparently even Glen Beck is saying she should be reinstated, which means she’ll be president in 2012 (and Beck=Stuef).

BarackMyWorld

[re=621979]OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin[/re]: Is ignoring it all together and moving on to something else one of the choices?

the problem child

This is as good a reason as any to get rid of Vilsack. Oh, wait, that would be jumping to conclusions.

EdFlinstone

Well Morning Bloe is going with the same theme as Faux, how could the hopey administration fire her so quick after we spent yesterdays show demonizing her, and in Faux case, all day Tuesday. I mean. cmon it was a great story the media had to go off half cocked on before all the facts were in, like the Acorn worker who actually didnt help whitey pimp get mexican hookers to cross the border but rather did in fact call the cops. The only innocent in this whole story is the media, because when you get a breitbart tape, you know it hasnt been edited and you know its an unbiased source, so you can just run with it. God help us.

freakishlystrong

As usual, this is good for Republicans. We never won any election, by the way. The war-mongering, racist wingnuts are still very firmly in charge of this country. Also, the timing of this is specious. Obamar is due to sign what would have been a fairly popular piece of legislation today. Look over there! Something racist!

Terry

[re=621990]Serolf Divad[/re]:

Bravo, Jack, and braov Serolf Divad.

letmetellyou

I didn’t want this post to end.

RPolanski

Would somebody please sue Andrew Breitbart, James O’Keefe and the rest of the corps of defamers on behalf of each of their victims. That’s the only way that these guys can be shut down for good. Hit them in their pocketbooks, dammit.

MargeSimpsonsBlackFriend

I love it when Wonkette gets all earnest and shit. Keep preaching the truth between poop jokes.

swizzard

It happens to all of them, sooner or later. Here officially begins the countdown clock til the Steufenator moves on to something less soul-searing, like working for Denton.

norbizness

As Will Rogers once said, I’m not a member of any party that won’t shit itself shitless at the slightest provocation, I’m a Democrat.

WarAndG

What does this grand cabal (Breitbart, Limbaugh, Beck) of dishonest, undereducated, adolescent, sniveling, ego-maniacal media bullies of the right wing nuttery even want, ever?

Who fucking knows, but everybody just fuckin’ roll over for them until they get what they want…

Oh wait, what…all they want is pockets full of money by swindling their even less educated brain dead audiences with their unique brand of race baiting anger-tainment?

Oh well let’s roll over for them anyway. WHEN IS THE NEXT BEER SUMMIT?

Manos: Hands of Fate

Pol Pot had a stronger set of ethics than Andrew Breitbart. Do you think this motherfucker would ever apologize about anything? Could you imagine an alternative universe where this monster would ever admit that maybe it’s not that cool costing this woman her job by selectivly edited one of her speeches in order to get white people riled up against blacks.

Sgt. Biyatch

Great stuef, Jack. You’re absolutely right about Justin Bieber and his awful, detestable music. Oh wait….who fired whom after what now?

BlueStateLiberal

[re=621958]iburl[/re]: Long sustained applause.

Oldskool

In Barry’s defense she appeared to be off her rocker and embarrassed herself and whoever she worked for. And the White House didn’t release any statements that I know of so the stink may not stick. I betcha Team Barry will turn it into a net win like they usually do. Last year he made one of the best speeches ever on race AFTER he was satisfied that everyone had bitten each others heads off.

OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin

[re=622012]BarackMyWorld[/re]: Is ignoring it all together and moving on to something else one of the choices?

Only if you work at Newsbusters, Bigblahblah or Fox. Give it a day, they’ll be on to the next racial scapegoat who makes the conservative whites live miserable lives.

Roger Williams hates your ways

Obama is a piece of shit, an enemy of the people. FUCK him.

doxastic

I hope this rallies the nation around one thing we know to be true: Andrew Breitbart has a profound hatred of black people. Big Journalism’s short, messy history has basically consisted of nothing but crusades to get minorities fired from government jobs. Well, that Mullah Omar slash fiction.

PlanetWingnuta

So are we gonna have a new conference when Robert Gibbs (when it should be Obama himself with NAACP) apologizing to Shirley…and giving her a better job with better pay as a consequence of their fuck up?

By the way someone give a handjob for being up late and reporting this…it may be gay but shhhhhhhhh we wont tell anyone if u liked it.

mumblyjoe

And of course, with all the pageviews and publicity Breitbart’s gotten over this, I’m sure he’s laughing all the way to the bank, or whatever the micropayment-ey Internet equivalent is. The paypal account?

But that leads to the $100,000 (or possibly, several $100,000’s) question:

I know US courts aren’t terribly plaintiff friendly on this subject, but how strong of a case does Shirley Sherrod have for libel? Breitbart clearly acted in either negligently (if we take him on his word that “he didn’t have the unedited video yet”) or in bad faith (if we use our fucking brains on that one), and equally clearly acted maliciously in so doing. Moreover, this was clearly represented as a factual account, rather than a matter of opinion, and equally clearly untrue.

Point being, Breitbart is going to keep pulling shit like this until it’s no longer profitable (both in terms of money, and attention/pageviews) for him to do so. If Sherrod has a case, I hope to God she sues him for everything… well, he’s not actually worth all that much, as a human. But I hope she sues, and wins, and gets lots and lots of Breitbart’s filthy racism-money.

PlanetWingnuta

[re=622055]Roger Williams hates your ways[/re]: we aren’t going that far…maybe you need to sit down and lay your head on the desk.

Ducksworthy

[re=621958]iburl[/re]: I forwarded this post to the White House but frankly I no longer care if they read it. Gutless swine kowtowing to the hitlerites among us.

[re=622067]Sgt. Biyatch[/re]: ahhh thanks. So noted. Now back to Snark & Handjobs on SpikeTV!

Canuckledragger

After Shirley gets her gig back, can Vilsack get ACORN’s funding reinstated? They were the victims of *another* Breitbart fraud, no?

Also, top points for calling that bag ‘o gas “human poop-leech.” The man’s entire ouevre – and social and business circle – consists of fecal matter.

Barrelhse

What a sorry bunch of losers. They make Breitbart look good. Fuck you, Vilsack, you’re a knee-jerk reactionary with both hands on your ignorant ass.

Ducksworthy

Oh My Gawd. This lady has revealed tthe horrible truth about this country that the Southern Strategy is based on but at the same time hopes to hide forever. We are all Niggers to the Owners. There are only two kinds of people in this country. Owners and Niggers. If you aren’t an owner, you are a nigger. Us niggers is like sheep. Here to be fleeced of our tax monies which is then sent to the Owners at the big banks, Haliburton and Wall Street. Ever been so. ever shall be. Until we wake up and put an end to it. It ain’t race its class.

Mentioning this truth is definitely grounds for dismissal and condemnation by the NAACP.

Roger Williams hates your ways

[re=622067]Sgt. Biyatch[/re]: Yes, yes, I just want attentionnnnn. Please give it to me. Or it could be that Obama is just terrible. Real lot of hope he’s brought to the people.

PlanetWingnuta

wouldn’t it be fun if this became a “teachable moment” to the white house and they actually did grow balls and started thinking “you know…time to stop reaching across the table”

[re=621996]mumblyjoe[/re]: I still wish I knew why there wasn’t 1 person @ NAACP who bothered to watch NAACP videotapes of NAACP events before joining the hate-that-lady circle jerk.

Seems nobody in this failing world knows how to do research any more, xcept the Mighty Wonketteers. That simultaneously cheers and frightens me.

Yaay, Jack!

Mr Blifil

OH PLEEZE WONKETT you had your chance. Years ago (weeks? days?) I nominated Breitbart for a fucking Weeping Eagle, but instead you gave it to Charles Krauthammer. I am not aware of Charles Krauthammer’s views ever resulting in the firing of a nice middle-aged black woman whose father was killed by the Klan. So live with it Wonkett. Drink it up. You had your chance to intervene before any of this happened, but no you were too busy laughing at old clips of Kenneth Gladney’s beating to bother to pay attention, between bong hits and cumming on Jim Newell’s hair. Now go ahead and do the only logical thing and THROW ME UNDER THE BUS WHILE TOSSING EGGS AT ME JUST LIKE SHIRLEY SHERRRODDDD.

PlanetWingnuta

[re=622096]Mr Blifil[/re]: you make that all seem hot like a BDSM scene gone wrong. or is it Right? FAP FAP FAP FAP!

Sleeves

[re=621969]lulzmonger[/re]: I’m thinking along these lines…These events make no sense for me. Indeed, dickmoves is the topic.

At least she didn’t have to apologize to people she doesn’t despise! (Or to nobody.)

stew

Someone should check Andy’s travel schedule and see how many sex tourism sites he’s taken his hairdo to.

One Yield Regular

Terrific post, Jack (I was going to write “Stuefpendous!” but that would have been in poor taste, right?).

As much as I’m appalled by the cowardice of all of those involved in Sherrod’s firing, it’s Breitbart, far and above everyone else, who should be the target of indignation. What, does this puffed-up boy-man simply make his living out of getting people fired for no reason in the middle of the highest unemployment since the Depression? He should make out a check for $100,000 to Shirley Sherrod this minute, just for starters. If he’s decent at all, he can continue from there by sitting silently, facing the corner, until the end of time.

stew

I think it’s official–the punks whose heads we use to shove into the toilet in junior high for being such assholes have officially taken over American politics.

Mad Brahms

The teapartiers panicked because Sherrod had the humility and intelligence to do what they could do: admit her own personal biases, reflect, and share the story of her struggle against her own weaknesses to help others overcome prejudice. While Breitbart and his ilk are busy tripping over each other denying that they’ve ever been racist, here’s a brave woman capable of acknowledging her own flawed humanity, recognizing her own intolerance, and confronting it rather than being evasive or defensive.

The Baggers could do worse in looking for a role model.

[re=622080]Ducksworthy[/re]: COMMUNIST! Really, I do think class is the one thing you *can’t talk about* in America, the real elephant in the room. But there’s more than one axis of inequality at play here, as everywhere, and I think using “niggers / owners” here is a bit insensitive to those on the receiving end of other kinds of intolerance. (Not *everything* is reducible to class struggle)

I’ll stop being all serious now. This post just made me so frustrated / pensive / sad.

Surfeit O’Hubris

Time for Vilsack to be Vilsack’d by the president. Then Shirley Sherrod should get his job.

Blogette

Dear Obama Administration,

I like the hope-y change-y even though Sarah Palin is the bitch that came up with this phrase. Still, me like-y. However, please do realise that the bullies will continue to take your lunch every day and pound you into your locker even if you volunteer to do their homework. They do not like you, they will never ever like you and at the next given opportunity (by you) will attempt to poop on your head.

Fire Tom Vilsack, give Shirley Sherrod his job and for heaven sakes, get Sarah Palin to a nunnery.

Best,
Blogette

Sleeves

[re=622116]One Yield Regular[/re]: Breitbart has something to sell (a bloc) and maintain. The point of demonstrations of the “I am the Tea Party leader.” type? Easy money &c.

So let him get smug…the chucklefuck.

Ducksworthy

[re=622131]Mad Brahms[/re]:

Sorry for seeming insensitive. But the point I was making was that this woman’s real sin was in seeing that the white farmer was in the same condition as her black clients. That observation is simply not acceptable. If you’re a racist, its demeaning to white people. And of course racism is still a horrible problem in USA America but it is intentionally promoted by the Ownership Society. This is way to serious but this situation, and the capitulation of the administration and the NAACP to the hitlerite element definitely infuriated me. Also, having had my retirement savings redistributed to the Wall Street bankers has made me a Communist, also.

Quote: “What I’m going to do is take that line all by it self, and separate everything you’ve said since, that ONE line… … well, but before we go on to the context here, if we HAD listened to the entire speech, would we have gotten a clear understanding that you were not being racist?”

FIRE HIM. NOW. This is not what journalists do. This is not what COMMENTATORS do. Your job is to contextualize. THIS IS YOUR JOB. THIS IS YOUR *DUTY*. You do not put interviewees on the spot to defend themselves when you haven’t yet reviewed the evidence yet or presented it to the audience. This baits them into saying things that might be incriminating when you, as a journalist – or even just an interviewer! – could have simply presented the research you should have done yourself. I don’t care if you follow it up with a clip of the white folks defending her. This kind of interviewing insults the intelligence of the audience. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting, CNN.

Hint hint, Breitbart: Now is a good time for the rising (sham)conservative political movement to have a “Sistah Souljah” moment. Maybe you should consider being the one who says “we can learn a lesson form this, that we all need to overcome prejudice”, eat a little humble pie, and win some media point. Or you could just let them exile you, too, which I’d frankly enjoy a lot more!

GOPCrusher

I’m so sick and tired of seeing this useless piece of shit make a profit by portraying himself as The White Man’s Hero and specifically targeting anything he can spin as proof of Obama’s racism against the Whites.
If there is a God, I’m sure that there will be a special place in Hell reserved for Andrew Breitbart after he dies a long, painful, lingering death.

qaf

[re=622094]gradgrind[/re]: I still wish I knew why there wasn’t 1 person @ NAACP who bothered to watch NAACP videotapes of NAACP events before joining the hate-that-lady circle jerk.

According to reports in Talking Points Memo, the NAACP didn’t have that tape and had to get it from the videographer.

Glad I could help.

imissopus

[re=622250]Sleeves[/re]: “Breitbart.com founder says, ‘I’m invested in getting the NAACP and the Democratic Party and the Congressional Black Caucus to stop constantly calling the Tea Party racist.'”

Yeah, right. I’m going to go find his house in Brentwood and throw shit at it.

Slattenpat

The White House got straight up, unequivocally TROLLED, like a bunch of fucking no0bs.…tsk tsk tsk…

Mad Brahms

[re=622294]imissopus[/re]: No, you’re invested in making *them* look racist. It’s really a very different thing, toolbox.

Hail, Stuef, sorry I didn’t get to this earlier. It’s beginning to seem obvious that the so-called “White” House has been infiltrated by wingnuts. With all the recent history of right-wing tape editing, NO ONE in the administration bothered to wonder whether Breitbart’s snippet might not be the whole story?? Time to clean house! Rahm? Michelle? PAY ATTENTION!

I wonder how many edits it would take before the lock the page. I mean, I’m not *encouraging* anything, cough cough, just wondering.

[re=622386]torera[/re]: It is absolutely beyond me why both the dems in congress and the white house are so chicken-shit scared of the tea party. One big claim against them is that they are weak, effeminate* bureaucrats, trying to micromanage citizens’ lives and take away our very mainly guns / white wimmenz. It does not help to cower in a corner and cry in the face of such criticisms; I’m not agreeing that there aren’t some serious issues with teabagger notions of masculinity and power, but you work with what you’ve got.

sati demise

[re=621969]lulzmonger[/re]: Now that should be INVESTIGATED. By a REAL REPORTER.

sati demise

Who gave Breitfart the film, and where did they get it?

problemwithcaring

[re=621958]iburl[/re]: This, a thousand times.

teh_mantis

[re=621984]Katydid[/re]:

I’d like to point out that our very own teh_mantis picked up on how the video was doctored immediately yesterday.

Thanks! I just wish some others took a moment to think about it before, you know, firing people. But it came from Brietbart, and he’s such a reliable source, so what could they do!

You should see the responses I got on the wingnut blogs I posted to on Monday. Let’s just say, not nice.

qaf

[re=622412]gradgrind[/re]: Hey, I agree, it was reckless of them and now they’re going to have to fix it.

On the administration side, Obama needs to have Sherrod and Vilsack over for some beers, and maybe a backbone implant for Vilsack.

Mad Brahms

[re=622552]teh_mantis[/re]: Oh, good lord. Still, good on you for suffering for art on this one.

Also, every time I visit LGF, I’m reminded how nice it is to read them since they came back from their trip through the neo-con wilderness.

June Cleaver 2.0

[re=622033]Oldskool[/re]: Obama is making a mistake being so publicly cowardly, and I don’t know how to snark that. sigh, hope fading…

teh_mantis

[re=622583]Mad Brahms[/re]:

Also, every time I visit LGF, I’m reminded how nice it is to read them since they came back from their trip through the neo-con wilderness.

I know! This is why I spend time trying to combat the bullshit on the right, on their own turf. Every once in a while, like with Charles Johnson and John Cole, a dedicated right winger realizes how much of what they are supporting is built on lies and fearmongering. I’m not taking credit for those two or anything, just saying there’s hope sometimes.

mumblyjoe

[re=622552]teh_mantis[/re]: Wow, they really show you what’s what, vis a vis racism.

zhubajie

[re=621956]Lawndarts[/re]: Got off the Greyhound at the wrong stop?

zhubajie

[re=622080]Ducksworthy[/re]: This is news to you?

Mr Blifil

[re=622499]sati demise[/re]: Shut up Shut Up SHUT UP!! Nobody is interested in that kind of thing BORING.

Sleeves

[re=622951]Mr Blifil[/re]: Bingo baby.

jus_wonderin

Excel-fucking-lent! BTW: I trademarked that.

jus_wonderin

[re=622064]mumblyjoe[/re]: I’d contribute to her defense/complaint fund for sure. Take ABart down.

D C

f this woman. how is she a true government employee? she is a waste of our taxpayer funds. i am a minority government employee. for her existence, she should resign. she represents all that is wasteful and empty of our government. she is not intelligent and does not need to be employed by the highest government in the land. she is a waste. tell her to lose some weight. no more fatty foods for you shirley. get to work and stop indulging, like most people of the government.